The job, honestly
This is a conservation officer role. The original was straight about the pay and the hours, which is unusual and is the reason it is worth using.
Responsibilities of the role
- Educate all sectors of the local community, including schools and colleges, and raise awareness of environmental issues and nature conservation work
- Provide advice to clients, employers, community groups, landowners, planners and developers
- Contribute to the selection of, and assist with casework for, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and National Nature Reserves (NNRs)
- Promote sustainability to the public, colleagues and fellow professionals through talks, tours, literature, displays and workshops
Read that list again. Four responsibilities, and three of them are talking to people. If you are going into conservation because you would rather work with animals than with humans, this specific job is not that. Field ecology and reserve warden roles are closer — but even those involve a lot of volunteers, landowners and paperwork.
Pay and hours
Starting
£18,000–£24,000Senior, or 10–15 years in
£20,000–£30,000Experienced managers
£30,000+Look at the middle box. Ten to fifteen years of experience can still start at £20,000 — which is inside the range you started on. In a lot of careers pay rises with time served. In this one it largely does not, unless you move into management.
Hours. Unsocial hours including early starts and evening meetings are typical, and some weekends and public holidays. Evening meetings are the part people do not picture — a lot of community consultation happens at 7pm in a village hall.
What this does not mean: that it is a bad job. People do it for decades and would not swap. It means you should go in with the numbers in front of you, and plan around them — where you can afford to live, whether the role needs a car, whether there is a route to the salary you need by the age you need it.
Getting in
Relevant degree subjects
Biology / bioscienceBotany / plant scienceEarth science (physical)EcologyGeographyLand / estate managementMarine sciences / oceanographyPlanningSurveyingSustainable developmentWildlife conservationZoology
Two on that list surprise people: planning and surveying. A great deal of practical conservation in the UK happens through the planning system — someone has to read the development application and know what an SSSI designation means for it. Those routes are less competitive than zoology and often better paid.
The IUCN Red List
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Extinct | After exhaustive surveys, the last known individual has died |
| Extinct in the Wild | Survives only in captivity, cultivation or a naturalised population well outside the past range |
| Critically Endangered | Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild |
| Endangered | Very high risk of extinction in the wild |
| Vulnerable | High risk of extinction in the wild |
| Near Threatened | Likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future |
| Least Concern | Widespread and abundant |
| Data Deficient | Not enough information to assess the risk |
| Not Evaluated | Not yet assessed against the criteria |
Sort these twelve
Some of them will surprise you. The explanations are the point, not the sorting.
What nobody tells you at careers evening
A lot of the work is unpaid first
Volunteering and short contracts are the normal way in. Budget for that, or find a route that does not require it.
Volunteering and short contracts are the normal way in. Budget for that, or find a route that does not require it.
Contracts are often fixed-term
Funded by a grant that runs two or three years. Many people string these together for a decade.
Funded by a grant that runs two or three years. Many people string these together for a decade.
A driving licence matters more than expected
Sites are rural and public transport does not go there.
Sites are rural and public transport does not go there.
Species ID skills are currency
Being genuinely good at one group — bats, botany, bryophytes, beetles — gets you paid survey work while you build everything else.
Being genuinely good at one group — bats, botany, bryophytes, beetles — gets you paid survey work while you build everything else.
You will lose some
Sites get built on. Populations fall anyway. That is part of the job and it is worth knowing before you sign up.
Sites get built on. Populations fall anyway. That is part of the job and it is worth knowing before you sign up.
People stay anyway
Ask anyone doing it. The retention is not because the pay is good.
Ask anyone doing it. The retention is not because the pay is good.